I started to knit when I was maybe 9 or 10. The school I went to then -- a one-roomer in the midst of a forest (really) -- didn't have enough kids to get two youth groups, male and female, so, since the girls outnumbered the boys 5 to 4 (as I recall; real number not proportions), we got the girls' version (though most of the boys got some help from the neighbors with boy stuff, like knots and such). So I learned to set a table, plan a meal, cook it, and no doubt countless other "female" chores; cooking stuck with me, but that is another story. I also learned to knit and turned out endless potholders and a few more complex items of equal utility.
When I went away to school, I pretty much gave up knitting, except for a couple of times I used it in the hopes (not fulfilled) of impressing girls by taking up their work when they grew weary. But my gauge was always too tight (potholders!). So, eventually I dropped it, until much later, when I picked up The Manly Art of Knitting and tried a few things from it, though never the hammock knitted on two shovel handles. I dropped again and have never gone back, though I have tried other ways to get two dimensions from one: weaving of various sorts, tatting -- including needle tatting, even a (very) little embroidery, and Japanese knotting (well, some western sailor knotting, too). But once I got to crochet, I more or less stuck, though I would go years without doing any, only to take up again.
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